City trying to keep butts off the streets

Thursday

Mar 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMMar 27, 2008 at 6:20 AM

The city has had enough and says it’s time to kick butts up and down Main Street. Officials hope to snuff out cigarette butt litter Downtown by giving outdoor ashtrays to 16 bars and handing out 1,000 "personal ashtrays," shaped like someone’s backside.

Kevin Sampier

The city has had enough and says it’s time to kick butts up and down Main Street.

"People don’t think of the cigarette butts as litter," said Steve Fairbanks, neighborhood development specialist with the city. "Once it’s out of the car window or outside the bar they’re at, it’s inconsequential."

But those little white and brown cylinders have been steadily piling up outside businesses ever since the Smoke-Free Illinois Act went into effect Jan. 1, which bans smoking in bars and restaurants and forces smokers outside to take a puff.

Since then, cities have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of cigarette butts on sidewalks and in gutters.

"A lot of places haven’t prepared," Fairbanks said.

But Peoria will combat the problem by purchasing $40 outdoor ashtrays for 16 bars on a four-block stretch of Main Street between Southwest Adams Street and Northeast Perry Avenue.

The Main Street Cigarette Butt Clean Up project will officially kick off April 1 and will run through Aug. 1.

The ashtrays will be anchored to the ground during the day and bar owners will take them inside and empty them at closing time, Fairbanks said.

"Everybody we’ve talked to is enthusiastic," he added. "The (bar) owners don’t want to see cigarette butts littering the street."

Kerry Cook, owner of Hoop’s Pizza on Main Street, said he’s seen thousands of butts on the sidewalk at a time and welcomes the city’s plan.

"It’s been quite a mess," Cook said. "As an owner, you want your store front to look as clean as possible, especially when you sell food like Hoop’s does."

Cook said no one knew how big the litter problem would be when the law was passed.

"I think it’s great to see the city working with the local business owners," he said. "It’s a problem we all want solved."

Peoria’s Downtown bar patrons have also taken to crushing out their smokes in flower beds and tree planters, creating what looks like a springtime crop of cigarettes growing up from the dirt.

"Everybody that sees them is disgusted by seeing butts all over the place," Fairbanks said.

The problem isn’t only in Peoria. Cities across the state are up to their elbows in butts.

Pekin Mayor Dave Tebben said he plans to have a meeting next week with city administrators and staff to address the same problem.

Cigarette butts are collecting heavily outside bars, Tebben said, and find their way into the sewers, which creates a new problem for wastewater treatment facilities.

On a Sunday morning in the near future, Peoria will use a machine similar to a giant vacuum cleaner on wheels to suck up all the cigarette butts on the route and weigh them.

They’ll do it again toward the end of the project and compare the weights to see if the ashtrays helped.

The project will also serve a public awareness function, using a bit of humor to do it.

The city has purchased 1,000 "personal ashtrays" smokers can get free from the 16 bars. The container, shaped like a butt and stamped with the message "The Butts Stop Here!" is an ashtray that can hold about six or seven cigarette butts.

"We understand smokers are being forced out and they’re angry," Fairbanks said, referring to heated debates between smokers and non-smokers about the act.

But Fairbanks said the novelty item is a way to reach out and get smokers involved with the program and to stop littering.

"You don’t engage somebody into helping by lambasting them."

Kevin Sampier can be reached at (309) 346-5300 or ksampier@pjstar.com.